Bleach 517 – The Stairway to Heaven

I am covering Bleach for Prooof this week because he is currently away. He should be back next week!

The Zero Division sure is a lively bunch. Their manners and attitudes are certainly not very appropriate considering the situation in Soul Society. Some of them really irked me, especially when they mocked the Gotei 13 for being disgraceful. While it is true that the squads weren’t able to do their job properly, they should hardly be made fun of for that. The Zero Division must be extremely strong to be able to utter such words at the captains during such a tragic moment. But what is the point in being strong if you don’t use that strength for good? Sure, the Gotei 13 will be rebuilt but the damage has been done. It still makes no sense to me that the king allowed Soul Society to take that much damage, and it makes even less sense for the Zero Division to mock the captains for it. The Zero Division could’ve stepped in to help a lot earlier to prevent this disaster. That is, if “rebuilding the Gotei 13” is considered to be any help. To be honest, the currently active captains should be able to do that themselves. The Zero Division is hardly needed now. Talk about wasted potential…

While the rebuilding might be worth questioning, the Zero Division appears to be handy elsewhere. Healing the severely injured people, something Unohana’s team can’t, will truly be helpful. It surprises me that Unohana herself seemed to be quite against having the sick being transferred away from her division. Why would she deny help when it is so necessary? Isn’t it more favourable to Soul Society if a captain and two lieutenants were healed and fully functional? At least her wishes weren’t heard and the injured people were taken away anyway. Hopefully they will receive proper treatment so they can return to their daily lives.

As for Ichigo – with him being the centre of everything, it didn’t come as a surprise when he was invited to the Soul Palace, but the question is – what for? Whatever the reason may be, hopefully it will be something useful for Soul Society. For now, those reasons will remain a mystery, and so will the identity of the mysterious character who appeared at the end of the chapter. Any ideas who that might be?

I actually beg to differ because one of those characters just stated why they didn’t help the seretei because it was not their job, their job was to protect the king of souls. Although Kubo’s story is already confusing as it is, I the new characters seem pretty cool and they answer some questions. I just hope Kubo explains why Aizen wanted to meet or kill the King and how Juha and Aizen connect in terms of plot, otherwise this was an okay chapter.

Urahara perhaps? It sure sounded like him. So the Kuwabara/Yakuza hybrid is Unohana’s teacher, even while people got messed up pretty bad I can totally see why Unohana wouldn’t want to let that jerk of a guy handle her patients. Man if THAT’s her teacher how did she turn so refined? Aaaaand bummer so the fat one was Hikifune…

If Unohana was really a blood thirst Yankee in the past, I would like to see what was her wardrobe; since with a nice rack that big, I would like her to look like Oda Nobuna. Though it is shocking though that the dude with the ugly yankee hair is really the healing type, I found it interesting what his method of “healing” is, team Ichigo has a healer that can “reject” even death itself.

As for Hikifune, I so predicted she was the fat one. It is no surprise that someone that taught the unruly Hyori was a person that looked …….unexpected instead of elegant. Though I am shocked that the man in the glasses wasn’t given much of a speaking role.

My biggest concern is how Ichigo goes straight to see the Soul King. That was unexpected, if I had to guess, this is all of Aizen’s plan. He is likely saying “just as planned” while implanting some sort of time bomb on Ichigo to kill the Soul King; if Kubo did troll us with that then Aizen never cease to surprise me.

Last concern, if Ichigo gets another Harem in his collection. I have my bet that the “Soul King” is really a cute little girl. Aizen called the Soul King “THAT THING.” Could it possibly because Aizen refused the idea of being ruled by a little girl. Regardless, manga does have its perks when it shocks the audience, the Soul King may be a girl instead of some guy.

I actually hopes that that does happen, just so that he gets another one in his harem ^^
And don’t forget the potential for jokes on both ichigo his side as well as the jokes from the gotei if that actually did happen. But knowing Kubo, there is no way in hell or heaven that he lets a girl take up such a powerful position in this story of him.

They said that protecting Seretei is the Gotei 13′s job not theirs. Theirs is protecting the king. Simple. If they come down and help and shit happens and then something happens to the king. They just failed their job.

i suppose the implication is helping the Gotei 13 NOW is in the interests of protecting the king.

i don’t think there’s supposed to be any contradiction in their actions, as unexplained as they are. quite to the contrary what’s being implied is they are 100% completely devoted to their duty and their duty alone.
all of Soul Society can burn to the ground and they wouldn’t move an inch as long as the king was safe while it happened.
the ONLY reason they would dispatch is if they feel there’s now a threat to the king.

of course this is all ignoring the elephant in the room whenever we all discuss Bleach =
frankly at this point we should all be able to accept and agree that Kubo simply isn’t that great of a writer :P

Perhaps the door/entrance that leads to another dimension (where Soul King lives) is in the soul society. Which means, one must pass through soul society before proceeding to the entrance. Therefore, there is no need to have guards besides the king since they already at the entrance and no one able to get through with their presence.

The Zero Squad has appeared all of one chapter and I’m already annoyed with them.

They were all once captains of the Gotei 13, so they should better understand the captain’s feelings than anyone. Since being promoted, they think they are too good to deal with affairs of Soul Society, and speak to other captains in a condescending tone. So what if they are personal guards of the Spirit King. If Soul Society gets destroyed, what would the Spirit King be king of, a bunch of rubble?

Congratulations, Kubo! You have successfully made the most anticipated squad for years into a bunch of jerkasses in all of one week, right after their introduction.

Gotei 13 deserved to be talked to like that. They had nearly a millenium to prepare themselves but still had no plans for a counter attack had the enemy appeared inside Soul Society. Hell even Ichigo’s group almost managed to bring down their entire force at the early chapters. Then Quinchies attack and the first thing 4 of their captains do, full knowing they can steal they Bankais, is to go bankai and nearly get themselves killed. And now soifon bitches why the Zero squad didn’t intervene or show more humility? what is this Gotei 13 good for anyways if they can’t even protect their base? what have they taught their underlings that they can’t even stand for 2 seconds in front of the quinchies?

I thought at first that Unohana wanted to keep the wounded in Seireitei because she said that what this guy is going to do to them “is not healing”, implying a far more sinister method to restore and maybe even improve them in the process.

After reading the one from MS though, it’s clearly the guy telling Unohana that now is not the time for her to be healing (more like fighting) since she sucks balls at it compared to him (which is consistent in both TLs).

Rereading the first TL the meaning makes more sense if you think in that context. :)

Thanks Kubo for introducing a thoroughly unlikable character (the guy with the pompadour ass hat), and a semi unlikable character Shutara.

Also I love “Ass Hat’s” reasoning for not helping the Seireiti “Our job is to protect the King’s Palace, your job is to protect the Seireiti.” Then here’s a question: why didn’t you help against Aizen? He straight-up threatened the Spirit King, and was more of a threat to the palace than the Soul Society. Sure it was the partially the Soul Society’s fault, that doesn’t mean that you leave half of the captains to almost die.

Also do they not know about the Vizards? Because it seems to me that Hiyori’s former captain was oblivious to Hiyori’s current status.

Zero Division didn’t help because that wasn’t their job. Their job is to guard the palace and the Soul King. Gotei 13 could have been destroyed but, as long as they kept guard, they’d be following their orders. The biggest clue to that is that Shunsui actually asks what they were doing at Sereitei. They didn’t come to help rebuild, they came to get some special people for some reason god only knows

The only light in this crap tunnel is seeing what the Spirit King actually is. For those who remember it was alluded to at the end of the Aizen fight that the Spirit King isn’t a person, so what exactly is it.

I’ve been reading Bleach from the beginning recently. On more than one occasion, its been implied that the throne is empty and the spirit king isn’t real or doesn’t exist in a real sense. Going through the entire manga again, I’ve come to realize that maybe kubo isn’t pulling this manga out of his ass. There is at least a modicum of plot and set-up and planning. Go figure eh.

It doesn’t really make sense at all for them to turn a blind eye to Soul Society as a whole, showing blatant apathy to everyone’s safety and then go out of their way to tend to Renji, Rukia, and Byakuya’s injuries. It’s like Kubo is outright stating he made the three get fucked just for the mere shock value of it, because other than their status as the more favored, mainer (because Ichigo is the only one main character in this here series, given the unbelievable special treatment he gets with power-ups. In this sense, he really is treated as a king and can succeed the Shinigami King.) in the cast, there’s nothing special about them in terms of significance to Soul Society, except for maybe Byakuya.

I reckon that after their healing treatment, Ichigo and co. are going to through a training arc of sorts. (Although in Kubo’s book, training “arcs” usually consist of just pure, immediate power-ups that prevail from no actual, for lack of better word, grind.) I do kind of miss seeing Ichigo’s human gang of friends though.

I was afraid the fat woman would have something to do with food. I bet her bankai turns people into food or something like that.

I think we will finally see that Uhnohana’s true talent lies in killing. I really think she was one of the Shinigami that arrived with Yammaji. The look on Shunsei’s face when Captain Pompador told her she doesnt need to heal anymore said it all. Shes a bloodthristy killer when she gets on a roll

Did anyone ever wonder why Juhabach completely destroy Yamamoto’s body even after Yamamoto is already dead? Plus, Juhabach also mention about killing Ichigo and revive him in order to make Ichigo to be one of them. There are so many unanswer questions. Anyway forget about these questions, here is my wild guess: i think Juhabach might somehow make Yamamoto to be their soldier.

Like always in Bleach, those with a higher level of power have a higher level of arrogance. It’s something that really gets on my nerves, especially in this situation. It was what I hated most about the Head Captain, during the Aizen battle, he could have just destroyed the Espada, Aizen and his henchmen if he had just tried, but he didn’t until everyone else was defeated…the same thing has happened here.

Also, I’m keen to know who the thin woman is that knows Mayuri, if I recall, he didn’t come into the story until Urahara was captain of squad 12, so how does he know this woman from the past and when was she there?

My guess would be that the newcomer is Urahara and Ichigo’s friends or whoever owns the sword….I want to know who that was already!

I’m surprisingly neutral about this. The Zero Division are certainly hinting at more interesting ideas about the other Captains (Unohana for example) so I don’t mind them so far.

Now then! Time for some speculation:
Admittedly, given how they were hyped up so much I’m rather curious how they compare to the likes of Hogyoku Aizen and the Final Getsuga Ichigo. I mean sure Soul Society was lucky enough to have Ichigo at the time, but I actually wonder how much of threat Aizen actually posed to the Zero Division. I’d believe it more if Aizen was just unlucky to be swatted down by someone stronger than him (Ichigo) than to say that Zero Division is so OP HAX that they’re even more powerful than Hogyoku Aizen AND Final Getsuga Ichigo. Because seriously, if they go beyond the mountain-slicing and landscape shattering powers of those two, now that’s just pushing it.

I love Zero Squad’s attitude. Stop whining! Get strong, or get gone! When “whatever his name” confronts Unohona was the most interesting development so far in that it’s preparing us for her true power. Which has nothing to do with healing. I do think that when she finally does fight and releases her Bankai it will also reveal a hardly “modest” outfit. Kubo’s been saving this fan-service for some time. I just wonder if that “Thing” will be some Baby like humanoid or something like South Park http://southpark.wikia.com/wiki/God

If the zero squad stepped away, the entire thing could have been a ruse to attack the king. They may have been less than tactful as yama was dead but they are correct. Their duties is not to protect soul society. That is the gotei 13′s job. And they failed.

Take this example. A country’s army tries to invade another country. It gets smashed to pieces. Should they then blame their police force for not helping?

I knew it, I’m pretty sure that person with the long flowing hair is Unoha. She’s a bloodthirsty killer! Go to the limelight, diva! She braids her hair around her, does not carry her sword with her to battles, has everyone fearing her bad side, and was not allowed to participate in the battle against Aizen and the one battle against the Quincy intruders. That zero squad guy pretty much just called her “retsu” and stated she’s a crap of a healer compared to him. SO, go kill them all Unoha!

I’m very saddened by this shoddy type of storytelling. After the brutal devastation dealt to the Seireitei and its members, this never-before-seen, better-than-all-the-other-squads-combined, Gary/Mary Stu/Sue trope of utterly BS comes in and not only treats the thing like a f***ing holiday and a joke, but they go on to ridicule and belittle the surviving members of the 13 court guard squads for not doing their jobs properly? No, Kubo. Just. No.

That said, I want to like this new division, but at this point their whole existence just feels like an ass-pull and potential deus ex machina. Only time will tell, I suppose.